Fabric Painted Duck Shirt Tutorial

DUCK! Any time my toddler sees a duck he screams DUCK! This is a tutorial on how I refashioned an old t-shirt into a cute toddler shirt. With a duck painted on it, with fabric paint.

You would be surprised at how often you see ducks. They are on commercials in baby books and toys, ducks are all over. And he LOVES them. The other day I was changing, while my duck lover was having a tantrum. I put on an old T-shirt and it had a picture of a goose on it(he thought it was a duck). He immediately stopped crying and started happily yelling DUCK, DUCK, DUCK! While pointing at my shirt. That is when it hit me, a light bulb moment. I needed to make him a duck shirt. 

Ok so now we have this Duck shirt tutorial.

Step 1
You need a shirt
I started with this nasty shirt that I was given. It was stained but very soft and a good fit. So I soaked it in bleach and got it almost 100% white.

Look how special it was

Step 2
You need a pattern
1. I drew mine. If you are not comfortable drawing yours then you can easily find free clip       art online and you're all set.   As for the word, If you don't want to write it freehand then       you can print out the letters in any font. Then just tape them under the duck image.
2. Then I traced my duck with a black sharpie. Because you will need your drawing or clip      art to be dark enough that it will show through the shirt. So make sure your image is            dark.
3. Tape your image to a thin piece of cardboard(think cereal box)

Step 3
Place Image
Place the cardboard with the image taped to it between shirt layers.

slide cardboard under shirt

Step 4
Tape
tape the shirt down to the table. Use the tape to help hold the cardboard in place, Also use the tape to help create straight lines for the word line on the bottom.

See how you can see the DUCK through the shirt?

Step 5
Draw the lines
I used another thin piece of cardboard to help make my lines nice and straight. I just used a black sharpie.(So far it has lasted very well for 2 washes, I will keep you updated)

Step 6
Paint the DUCK
I used acrylic paint mixed with a textile medium.(like I always do when painting fabric). It works very well and it is very easy. Here is a tutorial with directions on how I mix my fabric paint I ordered my textile medium on Amazon  but you can find the textile medium at most craft stores.
*tip I used  my fun collection of sharpie pens(also from amazon) for the wing and beak and some other fine details. For the paint I used a sponge brush and applied it with an up and down tapping motion.  

Step 7
Words
Paint the words, You could probably do this part with sharpie as well.  *tip when I do this again I will leave more space between the letters. I think they look bunched up.

Done!
Ok I thought I was done but I decided to add some more detail....
So we have a step 8
Add detail
I added a black outline with my sharpie and some other highlights. Like the duck eyelashes and some beak details. I even mixed up a lighter yellow to highlight the wing(OCD MUCH?).... I think it looks good both ways. So just get as creative as you want

DONE! WRONG... again.

I covered the stains with some paint. I dipped a glue stick in the paint I had left from the letters and it made a perfect stamp. I stamped random dots on the stained sleeve.  This covered up the stains very well. And at last I was finished!

DUCK SHIRT! DONE